Just Realised The Nickname I’ve Used For My Blog (edelweissjpg, Edelweissko, Whatever I Don‘t Remember)

lazy af Ukraine character sheet, I love her sm you can’t imagine

also first art of 2025 yay?

OH. MY. 😈😈😈 I LOVE THIS. I LOVE HER. WONDERFUL.

by the waaaaaaay, if anyone‘s wondering what the hell is UPR, what‘s the deal with Ukraine in the period, etc, etc – under the cut are a few okay-ish English-speaking youtube video essays on the topic 😈😈😈 it‘s a whole drama, I swear it‘s worth it. One of them topics I‘m Very Normal about

Can I request Ukraine? Idk if you draw historical setting, but 1917-1919 (Ukrainian People’s Republic) would be cool🥰

MAMMA MIA. I'M SO SORRY FOR THE 10 DAYS RESPONSE 😭😭 but anyways,,

honestly idk much about ukraine's history,, but i did look up the outfit for this one so i hope this is accurate enough! ^^

🫂🫂🫂

I see you worried over making "vent art" but please don't stop. You NEED a place to escape from the hard reality, right? You need to make your voice heard like everyone, so stay confident with yourself and keep drawing Ukraine. We all love your personif country here.. 💛💙 Accept this as a kiss and a hug from me!

www. Thank you, but im not Ukrainain - im Latvian.

But Ukraine and all Ukranians deserve all the Hugs and Kisses yes 💙💛 and a country free from war and bitch ass neighbours!!! 🔥

The vent part of the art was more me being mad and tired about hearing our neighbour and friend get dogpiled and slaugtered by the guy who's saying that everyone else who dares to have a border with him is next. And watching live as one of our biggest allies turns their back on Ukraine and the rest of us.

Which in no way compares to actually being dogpiled and slaughtered by said guy.

But by God is opening the news and seeing 'Trump blames Ukraine for starting the war' or 'Ukraine kept out of talks about Ukraine' or 'The new Molotov - Ribentrop pact?' disheartening and infuriating.

But yea. Thats why i drew Ukraine together with the Baltics and Poland. I got tired and mad abt it all (an emotion shared by many) and drew the squad tired and mad together.

🤝 Were all holding hands on this 'fuck Russia, support Ukraine' train 🤝

LOOK, LIETUKR HOLDING HANDS!!

Now that I have your attention, here’s a really cool historical event🫶🏼

Battle of Ula happened as a part of broader Livonian war that started when Muscovy (later: Russia) under Ivan the Terrible attacked the weakening state of Livonian Order. One small problem – that gradually dragged all its neighbours in. Initially, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia suffered losses, notably the city of Polatsk.

Then enter 1564. Muscovy’s army of ≈24 000 is rapidly advancing. So those ≈12 000 of Lithuanians and Ruthenians (self-identification term for Ukrainians and Belaruthians back then) figured that (early) modern problems require (early) modern solutions.

The battle destroyed all stereotyped ideas about military art of the early modern era. It happened not in a warm season, but in winter. It started neither in the morning nor in the afternoon, but in the evening, that is, it happened in the dark hours of the day. And it ended up a crushing defeat for Muscovy, partly due to sheer well cooperation between Lithuanians and Ruthenians, and overall their tactics, like a surprise attack of both army flanks on the forested Ula river.

Also even though they won, they didn’t manage to re-take Polatsk and some other vital terrirories to the East of the Grand Duchy from Muscovy YET (hence Belarus is not there). And this became one of the reasons the Grand Duchy completely united with Poland in 1569 (Unia Lubelska).

Ah yes, linguistic dick jokes, that‘s what they un-shadowbanned me for. Immature? Yeah. Did I laugh when I realised? Yeah. So here it goes 😗 will I get sb‘d again? LOL.

(for those who didn‘t get it, Prussia in Latin is „Prutenia“ (according to wikipedia) and yeah it‘s similar to one of the common words for dick in Ukrainian, at least in the region I‘m from. Haha Eli how funny shit like this is exactly why you have no friends irl idiot. As far as I checked the two words are linguistically unrelated, just in case you wonder)

stylish country

The Many Ills of Canon South Korea(as explained by a South Korean)

Ik a lot of people might feel a knee-jerk reaction to this and go "why are you making this? it's been a long time since the character was banned and went into oblivion," and that's true. However, I find that a lot of characteristics of how South Korea was written has been carried on by some Hetalia fans, which are still problematic and rooted in pro-Japanese imperialist sentiment.

Here, I'll try my best to go over some major points, starting with Korea's canon design.

Character Design

Looking at this for the first time, I felt like I was on some kind of trip. It looked like Himaruya was indecisive of whether he wanted Yongsoo to wear a durumagi or a jeogori, so he said "let's make the undershirt as long as a durumagi!"

For reference, left is a jeogori and pants outfit and right is a durumagi and pants outfit. These are the 2 main hanbok types for men.

I can't think of a single character whose character design was this flawed and so inaccurately done. It's like he didn't even care or put any thought into Korean traditional wear. It makes me laugh when I see how Japan is given such accurate clothing in contrast.

His clothing is a caricature of what Korean wear is. Thankfully, I don't see a lot of art of him wearing it anymore, but when it does appear it really does feel disrespectful.

His Personality

I don't really have a problem with his energetic personality, but if you know anything about his depiction in the manga, you know what I'll be talking about:

His "hobby" where he takes credit for inventions, and his weird "quirk" involving sexually harassing Japan.

What...was the reason for this exactly? A lot of personality quirks and gags of characters are rooted in some existing stereotype many people attribute to the country, like

America -> eats a lot of food, bright colored cake -> US's reputation as a country with a lot of fast food and artificially colored desserts

England -> food is inedible -> England's reputation of unappetizing foods

Korea -> claims credit for other countries' creations(Mostly Japan's), sexually harasses Japan -> ?????

This is why I don't accept some Westerners trying to brush South Korea aside "because everyone gets dunked on in Hetalia!" yes, but to what degree?

A Japanese man writing his Korean character to be stealing from the Japanese one says a lot, that Korea doesn't have a culture of its own, or most of it isn't their own. Or daresay, Korea takes Japanese culture and claims it to be their own. All three of these conclusions are problematic, and audacious coming from a person hailing from the empire that attempted to stamp our culture out and penalized those trying to preserve our culture.

The "grabbing Japan's chest" bit originates from an ongoing political dispute of an island known as Dokdo, or as Japan calls it, Takeshima. Personally, I'd agree that Dokdo belongs to Korea, referring to maps produced by Japan from the 1800s:

Yellow is marked as Korean land, with even the writing labeling it as "Joseon Land." But regardless of which side is correct, there is something about taking an ongoing territorial dispute(it was a much bigger issue while Himaruya was writing Hetalia) and applying it with the context of "haha he grabs Japan's chest."

It paints Korea as unreasonable and a sexual assaulter so that Korean grievances against Japan can be dismissed. Additionally, both countries have a rampant sexual assault issue(my phone's shutter sound cannot be turned off–a feature of phones only made in/for Korea and Japan), which is why it's also insensitive to give this trait to Korea and make light of this sensitive topic, while also...not extending this to Japan.

Let's not mention making Korea the harasser given the history and Japan's position too. Korea's red light districts and sex/entertainment industry was started by and formalized by the Japanese occupation so they could exploit Korean women.

"Korea had been a Japanese colony since 1910, and the proximity of colonial Korea to Japan, its established colonial bureaucracy and transportation network, and the presumed “cleanliness” of its young female population meant that likely the largest percentage of comfort women came from Korea. Another reason for the large numbers of Korean girls and young women in the comfort women system was the well-developed state of the Japanese colonial sex industry in Korea and its networks of human trafficking. This industry, which had been growing with Japanese encouragement since the late nineteenth century, blossomed under the Japanese colonization of Korea (1910–45) and provided networks for obtaining and trafficking sexual slaves." - Music and Dance in the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” System: A Case Study in the Performing Arts, War, and Sexual Violence by Joshua D Pilzer

Now, the "claiming everything is Korean" bit. The whole gag is Korea is delusional haha look he's claiming something Japan made as his!! While Japan is just looking at him like "ok...sure..go off whatever ig." Again, making Korea to be an unreasonable childish character while Japan is mature and just trying to get along, let bygones be bygones! Look at the sassy child I have to deal with guys!!!

Speaking of "sassy child..."

Korea's age

I haven't checked the wiki in a hot minute, but there were 2 details of his age I remember.

he's 15

he was "born" 1945(liberation of Korea from Japan) or 1948(Creation of South Korean govt)

This would be contrary to even the manga, as it references a painting by a Japanese artist in the 1700s of what he assumed were Joseon messengers stealing chickens during their mission to Japan. Korea was alive then as depicted in the picture referencing the real one, so it's safe to say his existence should predate even 1945.

(Interesting to note that Himaruya says that Koreans interpret it as Japanese bullying the Korean envoys, when Korean sources actually suggest it could be children playing around.)

Even if Korea was set to be born 1945 or 1948, it doesn't do us justice. Why do we not have a history before colonization? How is it that Korea could be even younger than America, when the Joseon Dynasty was established a century before Christopher Columbus reached America in 1492? How is it that Japan gets to be older and Korea doesn't?

It's glaringly obvious, but Korea's "childish, immature personality" stems from Japanese imperialist rhetoric of Koreans during the Colonial Era, of people needing to be civilized.

"In April 1919, Baron Goto Shinpei (Home Minister, 1916–1918) addressed a luncheon attended by US Treasurer John Burke. Goto contended that Japan did not act duplicitously in 1905, but instead, “with the full cognizance of the United States government.”  "He added, “under the efficient government of Japan, the Korean people rapidly advanced in civilization and enjoyed the blessings resulting from the development of productive industry, as well as the spread of education." - The March First Movement in America: The Campaign to Win American Support by Brandon Palmer

The most important thing to remember in all of this was that during the time of Korea's controversy, Anti-Japanese sentiment was still quite high because of the unhealed wounds as a result of 35 years of Japanese Occupation. When you think about your colonizer making a personification of your country and depicting him as

-someone that copies from the colonizer and harasses them, a contrast to the "mature" colonizer

-someone with barely a history before the colonizer

-someone who's clothes are so wildly inaccurate

then wouldn't you too be enraged? This is what caused the National Assembly to ban the official airing of the anime, and official releases of the manga. You'll notice even these days Koreans are hostile towards Hetalia, even as the incident happened years ago, whereas the Countryhumans had a large Korean following and creators, because one of them was openly treating their country like a personification from a political cartoon found in a 1920s Japanese newspaper, and the other was fan created.

I hope this perspective was helpful in explaining why certain qualities of canon are disrespectful. Please remember before defending "canon" Hetalia, Hetalia is made by a Japanese author who was found to have been on Japanese right wing forums. Don't try to convince a Korean that his depiction/canon of Korea is respectful.

Now, for my own nefarious reasons, I asked my German (Schleswig-Holstein) friend today if there are any stereotypes about modern Brandenburg federal state in Germany, and she sent me this ABSOLUTE GEM

(Since I follow the chain of events that today’s Bundesland Brandenburg is personified by the same guy as personified the former Margraviate, part of the kingdom, etc, etc, these days Gilbert-Prussia would absolutely annoy the shit out of him with this song I CAN FUCKING SEE IT HAPPENING. With the other Bundesländer joining in.)

Basically the stereotype is that the area is very rural and there’s nothing to do and everyone’s moving out and shit and yes stereotypes are bad but in no right does this song have to be so fucking funny🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

PLEASE.

I CAN’T.

Wah, I made almost the same joke the other day!

OH YES MARK BRANDENBURG.

also a meme spoiler to a WIP which is the only reason I haven’t drawn this. YET. Except this was made before I even heard the song and this is just his normal face.

Also, here’s where the screenshots are from and where u can find English translation and stuff. I’M REALLY SORRY.

HAHA ME WHEN I SAW THIS. At first I was like…ahaha, ukrire, as a joke…but bro…bro I like what I’m seeing🌹

i approve of this rarepair! very cute ദ്ദി(•̀ ᗜ <)

Hetalia Ukraine Headcanon #2 – or, rather, my take on Ukraine in Hetalia canon.

upd: I might have worded it a bit shitty, but the entire purpose of this post is that „canon/common fannon“ uwu crybaby Ukraine is bulshit and fuck canon we ball anyway. That I will be re-creating her character the way I want, and that‘s literally it. Damn. Pls don‘t misinterpret things, I‘m not defending Himaruya or anything

This is something that has to be clarified before I proceed, and even before I answer to any further asks.

I think of Ukraine in „canon Hetalia" as Russia's perspective, what he tells others about Ukraine and what he wants them to think of her, for his own purposes.

Because, if you recall, the episode where she is introduced (Axis Powers, ep 42), it is Russia telling England about her. Just like episode 43, it's Russia's memories and perspective. I hate that this fact is often overlooked, as it makes total sense for Russia to want others to see Ukraine as a weak crybaby that is dependant on him. In fact, this no shit is the attitude russians have to ukrainians. Almost inferior, (quote) unable to fend for themselves. It is not cute. It is very much toxic. The scarf moment is extremely fucking funny. Because, (and again, this is Russia's memories), Ukraine gives him her favorite scarf. But what people overlook, is that in return she asks (in dub) FOR CONTROL FROM BLACK SEA TO POLAND. HER TERRITORIES. THIS- THIS IS NOT A CUTE MOMENT. SHE IS TRYING TO GET AWAY. AS SHE ALWAYS HAS. FOR CENTURIES. Or, in sub, she asks for „inheritance rights to Kyivan Rus", so again, reclaiming a part of her identity. After which, russia concludes that maybe they've never been close at all. srsl I wish russia realised that in real life and fucked off already

To me, this is the first moment that shows that there is much more to Ukraine than what we see, and that Russia must in no way be trusted on his word when it comes to her.

Especially since In her next appearence, Gakuen Hetalian Newspaper Club part 1, Ukraine is nothing like that. She wants to join the choir club, where the baltic trio and others are, and we find out that the choir is targeted by the so-called „soviet club". Lmao. Nor she is in any of the Halloween episodes she appears in subsequently. Moreover, in the 2013 haloween series, Ukraine is shown dressed up as a reference to a Ukrainian(!!!) urban legend about a ghost train. So, she is not afraid to express her identity even at that point. Yes, she is emotional, but not a complete mess of a crybaby whose every 1 in 2 words is „Russia". Which further backs my theory.

The latest appearence, where in Chapter 389 of Hetalia world stars, Ukraine asks Lithuania to „sent spare paper Russias" to her if he ever gets any, because, quote „THIS RUSSIA IS OBEDIENT, QUIET, AND LISTENS TO WHAT I SAY".

Does this sound like a weak crybaby Ukraine whom Russia was describing to you?

No. That's the point.

Btw the only point in history I can think of where she could be referring to when she says it's „like we've gone back in time", is 7th - 10th century; when the principality of Suzdal (later: Muscovy→Russia) was just freshly colonized by Kyiv and Polatsk (later Ukraine and Belarus) and was paying fiefs to them. Which is like, literally 40 years before Suzdal’s prince plundered and burnt Kyiv down in 1169. A first russo-ukrainian war for you.

So, even from "canon hetalia", the idea of Ukraine's character that this fandom often percieves her as derives mostly from Russia's POV. Which is sad, ironic (represents the influence of russian propaganda irl), but also thanks fuck, this means we see so little of her that her personality can be easily interpreted in a multitude of ways that reflect history and reality way better